This petition is to raise awareness of the climate of Fear and Paranoia that Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) has created in Cambodian-American communities across the United States, AND to call attention to the 47 Fathers, Husbands, Brothers, and Community Leaders torn apart from their families in the Summer of 2010, to be detained and deported to Cambodia.

These Refugees have been residents in America since before they were 12 years old, and have very little memories of Cambodia. Many are unfamiliar with the language and culture of Cambodian society. Unjustly deporting these Refugees will drive them and their U.S. Citizen families into poverty.

Since the passage of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA), both in 1996, detention and deportations have increased exponentially. These laws replaced a discretionary system with mandatory detention and deportation , and expanded the grounds of Deportation to include minor offenses. The 1996 laws are also retroactive. All 47 Khmer-American Refugee detainees have already served time for past crimes. However under current immigration law they are "Criminal Aliens" and are deportable. This is inhumane and unjust. Double punishment is wrong!

The community is stepping up and demanding CHANGE! It is 2010 and detentions and deportations are dramatically increasing. We must act NOW for LOVE, JUSTICE, and FAMILY UNITY!

Join us! Take action and make a difference! Join the Family Unity Campaign! STOP the Deportations of Cambodian American Refugees!

Sign the Petition and Call your Local Representatives, President Obama, and the Department of Homeland Security. DONT FORGET TO SPREAD THE WORD!

*Please ask your family, friends, and co-workers to sign this petition! Join us and lets make our voices heard! There is great power in numbers... Get as many signatures as you can!!!!

*ATTENTION If you are PRINTING this petition to collect signatures! The drop off date for signatures will be on Wednesday evening and will be open until 10PM. Location TBA, but will be in Lowell, Lynn, and Boston.

*FROM ANOTHER CITY? Contact us we will make sure we get your printed copies if needed. Please remember that Hand-Signed signatures need to be legible and REAL names address must be provided. Duplicate signings will be removed.

Letter to

DHS Assistant SecretaryJohn Morton

DHS SecretaryJanet Naplitano

U.S. House of Representatives

and 3 others

U.S. Senate

President of the United States

Massachusetts Governor

I, the undersigned, sign this petition to draw your attention to the Cambodian AmericanRefugees who are detained and due to be deported to a country they barely knew as a child, and areexpected to leave behind their community and families. I am asking that youIMMEDIATELY halt their deportations.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has acted as a rouge agency, operating in directcontradiction to President Obama’s stated priorities for Immigration Enforcement. As a Senator, Mr.Obama clearly understood that our Immigration Laws are broken. He argued: “When communities areterrorized by ICE immigration raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when childrencome home from school to find their parents missing, when people are detained without access tolegal counsel, when all that is happening, the system just isn’t working, and we need to change it.”

Our community is standing up and asking for change!

ICE has created an intense climate of fear and paranoia in all of the Cambodian Americancommunities across the country. It is NOT okay for anyone, especially ICE, to terrorize ourcommunities, make them feel unsafe, tearing our families apart. We should be supporting the valueand importance of families. We need to keep families united.

Many of these Cambodian Nationals arrived to the United States before the age of 12 as Refugees,escaping from the Khmer Rouge Genocide in Cambodia. Most have grown up and have lived in theUnited States for more than 20 years. Among those who have already been deported or awaitdeportation, many were born in refugee camps and have never set foot in Cambodia. They barelyremember their journeys to America. America will lose much by deporting them; all are assets to theircommunities as fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces,grandchildren, and community leaders, all of whom reside in the US. Their ability to survive inCambodia is uncertain; due to the Khmer Rouge Genocide, they have little or no surviving familyconnections to Cambodia, and they barely speak its language or understand the culture.

Most of the Cambodian Nationals to be deported are the main income earners of their families andhave US citizen children and spouses. Many also are respected leaders in our communities. If theyare deported, what will happen to their families and communities?

They have already paid their debt to society and deporting them now will send their family intopoverty.

All these people know as far as nationalism is America, and we are letting them, their families, andcommunities down by allowing this to go on.

Please do not deport our family and community members without giving them their civil andhuman right to due process. We ask for justice for these individuals, their families and theircommunities.